Kaupo Cliffs #4 to Tom-Tom

by kenji SAITO on February 3, 2013

Ever since Marcus mentioned the seven cliffs of Kaupo in Waimanalo, I’ve wanted to hike all five of them, as the other two are supposedly not doable. Tom was nice enough to be our guide today to Cliff #4.

There’s a trail here somewhere…

We met at Waimanalo Beach Park and carpooled in Glenn’s truck, and then drove into the neighborhood and parked at the intersection of Waiokeola and Manawaiola Streets. It is highly recommended that if you hike to this trailhead, that you minimize your footprint by carpooling as you don’t want to piss off the people that live here. Much like how some hikers pissed off the residents at the Haiku Stairs trailhead neighborhood, same smell but different attitudes. Pushing off around 8:15am, we made our way through the thick grass to pick up the trail that was marked by those always helpful pink ribbons and Tom’s direction.

Kaupo Cliffs Chute

Tom took us on a slight detour to show us the massive deep chute that separated Cliff#3 from Cliff #4. Impressive.

The fun begins

So is this why it’s called Kaupo Cliffs?

Tired of climbing cliffs? Try root climbing!

This was the best part of the hike for me. Climbing straight up these tree roots for about 40-50′. You need some level of upper body strength to make it up this section. Felt like a kid again.

Hitchhiker

This guy took the easy way up, on my pants.

Which way do I go?

After we made our way up the tree roots, a rock section with a narrow ledge stymied us for a bit as we tried out several routes to get past it. We finally edged our way up to the right, past an abandoned bee hive.

Going up

More scrambling. More fun.

Tom-Tom Trail

Looking to our right, we could see the Tom-Tom trail and the Koolau Mountains.

Still going up

Going up the loose and crumbly rocks, often covered by pine needles, made for a slippery slope at times.

Falling rock!

Always keep a safe distance. As I was preparing to climb up a section, Glenn dislodged a small rock from above and luckily my left hand and right biceps took the brunt of the impact which sent me back a couple of feet. At least I didn’t go over the edge. In the photo, I am resting my bruised hand on the rock that hit me.

Past the Kamiloiki Junction

After making our way to the top of Kamiloiki Ridge and following the trail for a bit, we missed the junction that goes to the Tom-Tom trail and had to double back. While the junction is ribboned, you have to keep an eye out for it, otherwise you may just miss it like we did.

Caveman proving grounds

There’s this particular part of the trail where one can practice down climbing some challenging rock sections. Since I just fumbled a rock football, I passed and watched Tom have his fun.